JOHANN GEORG ROSENMÜLLER. – Protestant pastor and prolific writer of rather rationalist tendency, b. 18 Dec. 1736 at Ummerstadt (Thuringia), d. 14 Mar. 1815. He studied at Nuremberg (Lorenzschule) and at Altdorf (University); from 1767 he was pastor in various places. In 1773 he moved to the chair of theology at Erlangen, then (1783) to Giessen, then (1785) to Leipzig, where he was also pastor at the parish of St Thomas and superintendent. Canon at Meissen in 1793, he became head of the Chapter (1802).
Works: Scholia in Novum Testamentum (5 vols., 1777; 6th ed., 1815-31); Abhandlungen über die älteste Geschichte der Erde (1782); Emendationes et supplementa (5 vols., 1789-90); Historia interpretationis Librorum Sacrorum in Ecclesia christiana (5 vols., 1795-1814). He also left apologetic, dogmatic, ethical writings, sermons, and edifying books.
His son ERNST FRIEDRICH KARL, b. at Heszberg near Hildburghausen (Thuringia) on 10 Dec. 1768, d. at Leipzig on 17 Sept. 1835, was likewise an orientalist and exegete. He studied at Erlangen, Giessen (Paedagogium) and at the University of Leipzig; in 1792 he became Privatdozent at Leipzig, then (1796) extraordinary professor, and finally (1813) ordinary professor of Oriental languages.
From his diligent and judicious pen there issued major collections still used and esteemed today (especially the Scholia), compiled by drawing on the scholarly work of previous centuries and containing information transmitted by ecclesiastical writers, ancient versions, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and rabbinic authors, as well as archaeologists and lexicographers.
Works: Scholia in Vetus Testamentum (16 parts, 1788-1817; some were repeatedly reprinted); Handbuch für die Literatur der biblischen Kritik und Exegese (4 vols., 1797-1800); De versione Pentateuchi Persica (1813); Das alte und das neue Morgenland (6 vols., 1818-20); Handbuch der biblischen Altertumskunde (4 vols., 1823-31), containing information on biblical natural history and geography; Scholia in Vetus Testamentum in compendium redacta (5 vols., 1828-36), in which he excludes the typical sense of Holy Scripture. He supervised the reprint (1753-96) of the famous Hierzoicon of S. Bochart (v.). In the field of Arabic studies, besides publishing the description of Mesopotamia by the famous Arab historian Abū ’l-Fidā’, prince of Hama, he wrote: Selecta quaedam Arabum adagia e Meidanensis (Maidānī) proverbiorum syntagmate (1796); Institutiones ad fundamenta linguae Arabicae (1818).